Si’s Pond

[Si4geckos]

I really don't do enough updates on pond-world.

All fish doing well. Think I may have lost one to Mr heron over the last 18months at some point. Not sure when, but I'm definitely 1 goldfish down.

Plants have gone mental this year. Reeds are over 6ft long, all the plants round the pond edging have now taken over the patio (lawn has gone mad in 3 weeks too, but I'll deal with that) and the internal weed and other plants have gone mad too.

Due to having the heron start to visit this year I put a net on for a while. Hated it, then replaced with fishing line around the edge. I also have a family of foxes that live behind the garage so I think they may have been after the fish too.

I've let the weed grow to cover 2/3 of the pond for some fish cover and its done wonders for baby fish this year!

I've still got the 2 original black goldfish that survived, but annoyingly are still black. Last time I cleaned the filter out, I found 3 rough looking goldfish in the bottom of the filter, barely able to move in 2/3" of fish poop! They were dull, grey and unhealthy looking. I took them inside in a small tank. One died within 24hrs and the other slowly came around to reasonable health. They were about 3/4" and ill/ patchy skin. Fast forward a few weeks and the patchiest one had turned completely white into a nice bright fish and the other had become a deep bronze colour. They were probably about an inch.

When I got the new indoor fish a couiple of weeks ago I needed the tank space for quarantine and returned the little fish to the pond. Today I'm sat in the sun looking at a white and bright yellow baby goldfish (I think the one I raised) and lying next to the pond, there's a lot of others!! Sizes range from half an inch to about 1.5". Definitely leaving the weed in for cover for the winter for all the fish. Hoping to get lots of nice babies next year. Most are brown, grey or black for now, but hoping time will change their colours.







Here they are the day they were released.










And here's the cheeky monkey annoying my cats and trying to eat the fish!

[fr499y]

Excellent! lovely looking pond. You certainly need to post more updates of it

[PaulVerrall]

Looks great mate, wish I could have a pond!

[Stephen]

That's a nice looking pond Si

[Si4geckos]

Looks great mate, wish I could have a pond!

Just get your spade out and chuck a bin bag in, then some water. Easy.

[Martinspuddle]

More pictures @Si4geckos! ...one image will not do.

[Clownman]

Very nice! Great job

[Si4geckos]

More pictures @Si4geckos! ...one image will not do.

Not very well at the moment, but as soon as I'm back on form, I'll 'dig' the waterfall out and see what I can do.

[plankton]

Get well soon Si.

[Si4geckos]

Quick pond update.

Just been sat out having a brew for 10 mins pretending its summer (wearing a hat, scarf and massive coat) but the pond is coming back to life.

This morning I spotted at least 2 (potentially more) big frigs splashing about so expecting spawn soon. The big fish are starting to get a touch more active. The small yellow fish from the posts above showed his face, plus there's a black one with an orange head I see most days now, about 2 inches long. An almost exact pattern replica of the biggest koi. I've also see at least 7 babies but they're all very dark/ brown/ grey colours. Haven't quite got my head around why the majority of the fry are dark colours when all the adults are orange, yellow or white. Hoping things change as they grow on. The 2 babies I had actually grow up from previous years are now about 4 inches and proper fish, but still no bright colours yet. All the rest look good and I'm excited for when the sun comes out more and the colours pop again.

I'll update with picture when it warms up a bit and I'm brave enough to clear the waterfall out and remove all last years dying back plants. I love pond life. Exciting times!